Investigating strategies for optimum water usage in green spaces covered with lawn

نویسندگان

1 Department of Horticulture and Landscape, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Department of Horticulture and Landscape, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

doi
10.22059/jdesert.2015.56484
چکیده

Water supply of green spaces in arid areas is a major challenge. A high percentage of green spacescreate lawns, which are high water consumer landscapes. Due to the environmental, recreational andathletic values of lawns, they are considered as non-removable elements in urban green space development.This paper reviews and discusses strategies for efficient water usage in lawn areas using library studymethods. According to the results, first, it was recommended that water demands of turfgrasses arecalculated using precise scientific methods. Eleven strategies including selecting appropriate plant species,clipping from appropriate height, removing the thatch layer, using wastewater as an irrigation water source,the use of superabsorbents, application of regulated deficit irrigation, the use of subsurface irrigationsystems, replacement of lawns with appropriate ground cover plants, the use of surfactants and otherchemicals such as paclobutrazol and endophyte fungi, as individual or combined strategies were suggestedfor efficient water usage in turfgrass areas. These results, in some cases, can be used as executiveguidelines by green space professionals in order to reduce water usage in this sector and in other cases,they can be used as preliminary studies for research in the field of sustainable management of turfgrasses inarid and semi-arid areas.